The Transfer Student Reads: A Stone and Azkaban
by Vexatious Marauder
Summary: Harlow Essery isn't expecting to become a target for friendship when she transfers, but two books are about to bind her to the lives of six people and make her fight to keep their bond from unraveling.  Marauder-Sorcerers Stone. Lily-Prisoner of Azkaban.
1. The Transfer Student

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Harry Potter or anything relating to JKRowling.

**Summary**: When Harlow Essery transfers to Hogwarts, she doesn't just bring the baggage of a scared past, but also two books that will change the future. The Marauders read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone while Harlow & Lily's friends read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. How will these students react to the accounts of a boy in his first and third year?

**Note**: Please review! Tell me what you think of the characters, or the writing style or if there are any errors in my work (including discontinuity). I'm really looking for advice on how to improve my writing.

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**Chapter One: The Transfer Student**

It wasn't enough for them to have no interest in being parents. It wasn't enough that they shipped her off to one boarding school as soon as she reached the appropriate age. It wasn't enough that they moved her from one boarding school to another based on a single suggestion brought to them by one of their hundreds of contacts and "closest friends". It was never enough with her parents. There was always one more things that they could take away from her; payback for what she had taken away from them. There was always one more thing they could do to make her life more complicated. This time though, this time it was more than just a complication. It was a nightmare.

"Miss Essery? Are you okay?" _No, but I will be. _"I know it must be a terrible shock to hear this." _It's five in the morning, and I'm not awake enough to be shocked._ "And, of course, I'm‒I'm so sorry to have to have woken you up to tell you this." _You're apologizing for waking me up in order to inform me my last remaining family are dead? Well don't you have your priorities straight._ "It just seemed that the sooner you knew the better." _I'm dreaming this. I'm dreaming this. I'm dreaming this._ "Miss Essery, if there is anything I or any of the staff can do for you, all you have to do is ask." _You're lying. I'd have to ask and then watch everyone's eyes brim with sympathy and sorrow and thoughts of how terrible I have it. I don't want your help. I don't want help._ "Miss Essery?"

"When do I leave?" _I will not look at you. I will not look into your eyes and see the tears you cry for people I cannot cry for myself. I will not look at sympathy that is undeserved and unnecessary._ "When do I leave, Headmistress?"

"I asked Professor Madison to pack your things, you'll leave in just a few hours." _The record for the fastest I've been removed from a school._ "Is there anything I can get you while you wait?" _Yes, but nothing that will make this nightmare end._

"A book." _The only thing I ever take with me from my transfers, a memento of my last home_. "For the trip." _Because, let's face it. You'll never see me again after I get on the train. Or maybe it's the other way around. Either way, this is our last meeting. _"Please."

"Of course, dear. I'll go get you a book and let you have some space. I'll be back shortly." _And I'll be gone shortly. In just a few hours…_

It wasn't enough for them to have no interest in being parents or guardians, negligent or otherwise. It wasn't enough that they threw her onto the first boarding school steps they could find. It was never enough with her family. Even after they had all died, they had managed to yank her away from the stability she craved. They had managed to remove her from yet another institute and from the people she had just started to warm to after being there almost a year. The question was, where was she being transferred to this time. _Not that it makes much of a difference; one school and one staff and one group of classmates is the same as another. I'll still be alone, no matter where I go._

Oh, how very wrong the young woman was.

O0O0O0O

"LILY-FLOWER!" bellowed a tall and dark handsome classmate that Lily Evans sometimes wished she could call a stranger. Not because she was interested in him in a romantic way, but because the arrogant and energetic lug could be ridiculously loud and grabbed attention of the whole train platform without trying, but carrying it with him to visit his newest victim. The twit had always been like that, but it was only recently that she had come to find it funny rather than obnoxious._ Not that I would tell him that,_ Lily thought, amused.

"Who is that?" Lily bit back a sigh at her older sister's disdainful voice. Petunia hadn't wanted to come to see her off. She hadn't wanted to see off since Lily was eleven and it was her first year at Hogwarts. But their parents had intervened by saying it was Lily's last year, and the last chance any of them would be able to see Platform 9 ¾. _Yikes, Lily! Don't think about how this is your very last year here and that you'll never get to ride on this train to Hogwarts again or that you might never hear Sirius scream your name on the platform because he knows it annoys James._ Lily opened her mouth to answer the question when Petunia cut her off: "Never mind. I don't actually care." _Then why did you ask? _Lily was tempted to ask, but didn't want to be in an explosive argument with her narrow-minded sister with her friends around or right before she got on the train.

"LILY! FLOWER!" Sirius was calling again and Lily pulled at her red ponytail as she watched him try to doge other people in order to be the first to hug her. As he had the two years before. _He might actually win this time. I wonder where she__‒_

"I win," was said from behind Lily, and Lily has just enough time to see Sirius' smile falter when two hands captured her shoulders and turned her around so that she could be pulled into a tight hug.

"Marigold!" Lily hugged her going-on-seven-years roommate just as tightly, forgetting for the moment about Petunia and Sirius. _You'd think we hadn't see each two days ago_, Lily laughed into her golden haired friend knowing that it would be a minute before she was released. Marigold had a thing about hugging people, if you could still breath, it wasn't a real hug.

"I blame James for this. I could have won, but he insisted that we didn't need to be the very first people on the platform. Shows what he knows." Marigold released Lily from her hug and smiled brightly at the Sirius who had reached them and was scowling at his lost. _And he'll never know that James and I worked out our timing so that he'd be late to the platform!_

"What's the matter, Black, can't take the competition?" Lily rolled her eyes at her best friends statement, why Marigold enjoyed baiting Sirius was beyond her. For awhile Lily has thought that Marigold had had feelings for Sirius, but then Marigold had started to date James. Not that the relationship lasted long, Marigold's relationships never did. She had dated at least a quarter of the guys in their year, and a slightly shorter list of guys from the older years; however, far from being a slut, Marigold had never done anything more that kiss the guys on the cheek.

"If James hadn't made me make that oath saying I would hex his Quidditch team, O'Brian." Sirius swooped and hugged Lily for a minute as well. The pressure of Sirius' and Marigold's back to back hugs causing her to wince slightly and rub her sides when she was finally released.

"Like you could actually get a hit in, even if the Jamesie hadn't made you take an oath," Marigold lied through her teeth and used her play name for James just to get a wince out of Sirius, who hated that she used little nicknames for her ex-boyfriends even though he did the same, albeit in a cruder fashion, to his ex-girlfriends. Baiting him was really the most she could do, as Marigold wasn't a particularly talented duelist. She knew enough to get her through a two hour class of Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Sirius was out of her league. _For that matter, so are James, Lily and Remus._ However, it wasn't likely that she would ever end up in a fight with the Marauders or Lily, as she was generally nonchalant and borderline lazy when it came to taking personal offense. She had never been required to defend herself with a wand, or felt the need to hex anyone. With the exception of James in their third year while that had "dated", but she was ninety-six percent sure that the twit had allowed her to jinx him so that he looked like a canary for the rest of the day. _Speaking of my favorite ex-boyfriend_, Marigold thought as she saw him coming up to them.

"There you are, Sirius. Mum and Dad said you took off before they could give you a last lecture about behaving in school and listening to authority figures." Sirius smiled sheepishly at his best friend and brother. They both had dark hair and were tall, but that's where there similarities ended as far as physical. Sirius had more of an aristocratic elegance to him, while James was more of a man-boy forever with hair that stuck up in different directions no matter what he did with it and an easy smile. To the point, they both took the strong physical characteristics of their noble families; although Sirius made a big deal in pointing out that the Potter family was the only one of which who could claim to be noble.

"Well, if we had left earlier like I wanted to, I wouldn't have had to run off. But I was going to run back to them once I hugged Lily first."

"Oh, so you finally won?" the third Marauder asked, coming from the opposite direction of James. Remus Lupin looked tired, but then he often was tired. It wasn't easy being a teenage werewolf, but the full moon had been a couple days ago, and he'd feel loads better by tomorrow. He was just glad to be finally getting back to Hogwarts and his friends. He pushed his light brown hair out of his eyes and smirked at the glare that Sirius was giving Marigold, who smiled innocently back. "Well, I guess there's always…" Remus lost his words and the five smiles slightly dimmed at the reminder that this was their last year.

"Next time," James finally said, finishing Remus' statement with a sideways grin and determined hazel eyes flashing. "There's always next time." He turned to Sirius and told him he should probably go find listen to his last lecture, which Sirius took to mean he should drag Remus, who had been able to give Lily a brief, and thankfully not as tight, hug in the meantime, to listen to the lecture as well. Marigold rolled her eyes at the disappearance of two Marauders and took that as a sign for her to go off in search of her own family to make the last goodbyes. She smiled and waved at Lily's parents and punched the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain lightly before going. Leaving James alone with…

"So, how are you?" James really wanted to give Lily a hug like Sirius and Remus, but it was different between the two of them. _Sirius and Remus aren't in love with her, like I am_. Lily smiled kindly at him, trying hard not to think about the sudden urge she had to hug him. _Why? I don't like you. I don't think. I don't. Maybe…_

"Lily-bear, are you going to introduce us to your friend?" Her father's voice snapped Lily and James attention from one another to his face, both a little red and thinking the same thing: _Is meeting the parents a good idea?_

"Um, right. Dad, Mum, Petunia. This is James Potter, my" _What the heck is he now?_ Lily and James had had a complicated relationship since they had met. James liked her, claimed he loved her, since they were fourteen. Lily didn't believe him, thought that he was just used to getting his way and getting all the attention and told him he was a prat and she would never date him. He bullied her ex-best friend, the boy who had introduced her to magic; but then he defended her when said boy turned on her when they were fifteen. He had done some awful and sometimes cruel things, but he was also extremely loyal and had saved her ex-best friend as risk of his own life and typically protected younger students from the Slytherin's pranks, which tended to be a lot nastier that the ones the Marauders pulled. He wasn't perfect, like her ex-boyfriend was, but she'd broken up with said ex-boyfriend because he wasn't James. If she was honest with herself, which she often wasn't, she did like James. _So James is my…what?_

"I'm her partner." Lily turned to him and blinked confused at the terminology, _Partner? What does that meant?_ "I'm Head Boy this year."

"Really?" Lily's mother voiced her thoughts, with the same surprise and interest; Lily's parents had received several letters and rants over the years about his immaturity, after all. "Well that's excellent news!"

"Congratulation, Mr. Potter." Lily's father, who believed himself to be a good judge of character, although sometimes blind to his family members, shook James hand firmly and thought to himself that he was glad his little-all-grown-up-girl had a partner that wouldn't shrink from responsibility.

"Please, call me James." _Do not screw up your chance with Lily's parents._

"Well, then, please call me Lina or Mrs. Lina if you really feel it's necessary to keep the title."

"Oliver, is fine." Lily was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that James, of all the people in the school, James Potter was chosen for Head Boy, while her parents and the boy who asked her out over four hundred times were conversing over the duties of Head Boy and what he wanted to do when he got out of school.

"Auror. Isn't that what you said you wanted to do, Lily-bear? She said that the qualifications and training are extremely rigorous. Do a lot of people try to complete the training?" It was clear to James by talking to Lily's parents how close she was to them that they asked questions and knew something about the wizarding world instead of trying to compare the wizarding world to the muggle world, which James had limited experience with. _I wonder if she told them about the brewing war. That if she becomes an auror, she'll be in danger all the time._ James mentally shook his head, trying to dislodge the image of Lily in danger from his mind. He knew that the argument could be made that he didn't have the right or a say in the kind of trouble Lily got into, but in a verbal argument he probably would still have tried to make a case for himself. Not that any case he made wouldn't come out sounding hypocritical, since he wasn't interested in anyone's opinion or reasons for why he himself shouldn't be an auror. James answered Oliver's question the best he could without mentioning the war and the disappearances in the news. _Just in case they don't know or Lily doesn't want to worry them_.

The whistle blew a first warning, waking Lily out of her bewildered thoughts and putting a stop to her parents interrogation. "We had better get going." She gave her parents a tight hug and kiss on the cheek and then tried to hug Petunia as well, although she didn't recuperate. _If only there was a way to get Tuney to be just a bit more like Marigold. How nice would that be?_ Lily turned to see, to her and, if his face was anything to go by, James' surprise, Lina mother hugging him. When Lina released him, Oliver took his right hand and shook it vigorously between his own hands: "Good luck, son. With whatever happens next." _I guess they know about the war_, James thought as he nodded and thanked Lily's father.

The whistle blew another warning. "James, dear, I think it's time." Lily turned to see James parents; they were older and until third year when Marigold had told her their names (Lionel & Abigail Potter), Lily had assumed them to be his grandparents. James hugged and kissed both of his parents gently before they started to push him towards the train. Lily grabbed his hand as the final warning whistle rang out and they started to run for the door that Remus held open for them. _The last final warning whistle I'll ever hear on the platform 9 ¾._

O0O0O0O

"James Potter is Head Boy."

"Wait, James is what?"

"That's what I said when I found out."

"You should have seen James' reaction when he got it. He actually mailed McGonagall to make sure it wasn't a mistake."

"He did not! I can't believe it."

"Would you hush? I think the girl is asleep. We don't want to wake her up. Especially since she got her first."

"If James had listened to me, and we came earlier, we would have found a seat."

"In all the years we've gotten on the train, that has never happened, Sirius."

"…How long before he and Lily buttheads do you reckon?"

"I don't know. I think that James is going to try to take this seriously."

"Seriously or Siriusly?"

"The correct spelling."

"But he's a trouble maker. Causing trouble is his trademark move."

"What I want to know is how are the prefects that didn't get chosen to be Head Boy going to react?"

"You're not afraid that people are going to make a big stink about this do you?"

"Some might. Slytherins will."

"Well, they don't count. Most of them are evil anyways."

"I'm just saying‒"

"And I'm just saying that James is a natural born leader, and he'll be fine."

"And if he's not, Lily will knock out anyone who crosses her."

"Don't raise your voice, Peter, you'll wake the girl up."

"Who is she?"

"No idea, but she can't be a first year. She's too tall."

"Lily and James Potter. Unbelievable."

"Wait! When did they get married? I wasn't invited!"

"What are you talking about, Peter?"

"You said Lily and James Potter. When did they get together?"

"They're not, I just meant‒"

"Woah, that would be one too many surprises. One way too many!"

"James married to Lily. Nope, I don't believe it's possible."

"I think it will happen."

"Really, Marigold! You live with her, you should know that it won't."

"Like you said, I live with her. Two galleons say they tie the knot in under five years. Who's in?"

"As Prefect I feel I should say that student gambling is frowned upon. As a friend of the gambled on party I would like to take part of that action. Two galleons agrees with Marigold."

"Thank you, Remus!"

"Anyone else in? Sirius, are you with us?"

"Huh?"

"You alright? We are betting on whether James gets the girl this year."

"Oh, yah. I vote yes to James."

"Anything off the trolley, dears?"

"Yah, just a second. Do you think we should wake sleeping beauty for this?"

"If she wakes up hungry, I'll be down with the conductor."

"Oh, well then, never mind. Can I get a couple of…wait how much for the bet, Marigold?"

"Two galleons. Yes, in five years."

_No, in five years, they'll be dead. Let this be a dream. Let this be a nightmare. Please._

O0O0O0O

"Oi, James! Was just looking for you, mate." James who had been walking down the train to make sure everything was going okay in the compartments stopped when he saw Sirius, wearing an abnormally serious expression, walking towards him. _Great, my first patrol and my best friend has gotten himself into trouble._

"What did you do?" It was a testament to the amount of trouble they had gotten into in the past that Sirius didn't even try to look offended by James' question.

"Nothing. This time. What do you do if someone gets sick on the train?"

"There's a medical kit in the Heads Compartment, I don't know what's in there but hopefully it will do the trick. When we get to the castle, someone will have to take her to the hospital wing. Who's sick?"

"I don't know her name. Actually, I've never seen her before at all. She was asleep in the last compartment that would fit all of us, so we decided to join her. When Goldie Locks and Thea left to visit some other friends, Remus noticed that she looked hot. Not the good looking hot, although the girl does look rather pretty, but feverish. Remus sent me to come looking for you or Lily to see what we should do."

"Alright, go get the girl and bring her to the head compartment. There will be more space there for her to lie down and it will be easier to figure out what to give her there too. Maybe Lily will know who the girl is."

O0O0O0O

"So, no one knows who she is?"

"Well, Sirius, Remus, Athena, Marigold, Peter, you and I don't know who she is. Those are the only people who have seen her like this."

"Well, I feel bad just calling her 'girl'."

"Sirius called her Sleeping Beauty earlier."

"While that's funny and I'm interested to hear how any of you get the reference, I don't think we can call her that either."

"Lily, she probably doesn't know her own name, that's how high her fever is."

"I wonder how she got to be that way."

"I guess you can ask her when she wakes up if you really want to know."

"I'm more interested in what she's dreaming about."

"Why? It's doubtful you are in it, Sirius."

"And yet, it is still a possibility."

"Use your brain. She's been muttering under her breath for awhile. Something about nightmares and five years."

"You think she heard us make that bet?"

"What bet?"

"It's not so much a bet as it is a guessing game and the losers pay the winners two galleons if the winners were right."

"What bet, Sirius?"

"Sorry, it's a secret."

"In other words everyone in the school but James and I will know about it?"

"Exactly."

"Well, at least you gave me the time limit clue."

"What?"

"Five years, something happens in five years."

_No. Under. Under five year. Poor baby. Harry. Sad book._

"See! She's doing it again."

"Did she just say 'Peter'?"

"Where is Peter?"

O0O0O0O

Peter had opted to stay in the compartment and watch everyone's things. It was unusual for him not to be in the thick of things, even if he was sitting on the outskirts watching, but today he was feeling less needed than usual. He wasn't completely stupid, he knew that his friends were all more talented than himself, that's partly why he was friends with them. Nobody picked on Peter because James, Sirius and Remus wouldn't let them get away with it. Sometimes though, Peter wished that he could do something on his own. That he could and was something that the others wouldn't or couldn't be. He wanted someone to pay attention to him like the others. _Maybe this year will be different_.

The train hit a snag of some sort and a few pieces of luggage came flying from over Peter's head. Peter sighed and went to pick up his friends belongings; two of the luggage bags had come open upon collision and some of their content and fallen to the floor. He recognized a beaten up suitcase as Remus' and assumed that the book that had fallen to the floor was his. The other bag looked like it had never been used and was a dark purple and green patterned bag. _That must belong to Sirius' Sleeping Beauty_. Peter was overcome with a sudden urge to go through the bag. _No one is here. No one would ever know. Right?_ But as Peter went to open the bag further, he heard Remus' voice outside the door, and quickly shut it before throwing it back onto the rack over the seat.

"Hey, Peter. Sorry to leave you behind." Remus said as he opened the door. Noticing the mess on the floor he asked what happened, to which Peter answered his suitcase had opened when it fell a moment ago. He left out his almost attempt at sneaking through the strangers bag, knowing that Remus wouldn't be impressed or approve of the action. "Dang it. I really need to get that snap fixed. Thanks, Peter."

"That's what I'm here for." _Right?_

O0O0O0O

Since their first transfiguration class when they had been partnered together, there had been an odd number of students in the class that year, Lily Evans, Marigold O'Brian and Athena Damon had been close. Sure, Marigold and Lily lived in the same dorm, as they were both Gryffindors and Athena was a Ravenclaw, but that had not altered their bonds with one another. No disagreement could. Not even the one that came up every year since they were fourteen.

"For the last time, Marigold, it's not going to happen." Athena was reaching the end of her patience for the day on the subject of James and Lily being a couple. Marigold, whom she loved to death, had managed to drive her mad two hours into the train ride, with the insistence that Lily and James were going to get married in the next five years and who would be willing to bet on it at every compartment they stopped at to say hello to their other classmates. Her patience was already short because this argument had gone on for years, but to make it worse, her parents were getting remarried to one another, again. _For the fifth freaking time._ Marriage and living happily ever after had never been Athena's forte, whereas Marigold seemed to live off of love and sunshine it seemed sometimes. She really just didn't want to think, let alone talk, repetitively, about the joining of two people in a holy ceremony that was as easily undone as it was to do in the first place.

"Lily and James are meant to be, Thea."

"No one is meant to be anything, Marigold. There is no meant to be or fate."

"Lily is going to marry James."

"She doesn't even like James like that! They just did get to the point where they were okay being in one another's presence for a whole day without insulting one another the last month of last year."

"I know that, but Lily has had a whole summer to think about the changes in James. And you can't deny that he had changed over the last two years."

"I'm not denying that he hasn't changed. I couldn't stand James in our fourth year, but I rather like him and his friends now."

"What I mean is that those changes he's made completely dissolve the arguments Lily had over not wanting to go out with him in the first place."

"That doesn't mean you should ring the church bells. A date, unless you're my parents, doesn't mean that you have to get married to that person. And you should know that, you've dated tons of guys."

"Yah, but I don't have the same relationship with any guy I've met the way Lily does with James."

"…Not even Sirius?"

"What?"

"Well, Lily and I always thought that you had a thing for Sirius. I mean the two of you are always baiting one another and competing like your trying to get each other's attention."

"Eww." Marigold laughed at the visual of Sirius asking her out. "How long have the two of you thought that?"

"Since third year. I think Lily thought that you dated James because you liked Sirius."

"Nice to know my friends have such a high opinion of me," Marigold huffed, not exactly offended but close. "To be honest with you, I did date Sirius."

"Wait, what?"

"Yah, I dated him almost two months after James. And then last year I went on a couple of dates with Remus, too."

"What? Why didn't you tell us?"

"Cause it wasn't that big of a deal. If you remember right, I didn't tell you about James either. Someone saw me holding hands with him and you and Lily heard about it that way. Oh don't give me that look. You know that I change boyfriends frequently and that I don't stay with any of them that long. I like Sirius and I like Remus and, except for when he's on killer-Quidditch-captain mode, I like James. I just don't love any of them."

"Sometimes I wonder if you know what it's like to be in love."

"I have a decent understanding of how it's suppose to feel. And when I fall in love, I know I'll know him in an instant."

"Is that why you speed date indiscriminately?"

"Pretty much, yah."

"You are awful."

"And your kind of prudish and judgmental."

"Am not."

"Are, too."

"Am not."

"Are, too."

"Am not."

"Are, too."

"Am not."

"Are, too."

O0O0O0O

"Are you feeling better?" She had her eyes closed, but Sirius knew that Sleeping Beauty was finally starting to wake up. Of course, he knew that she had woken up before that, because he'd talked to Madame Lycos yesterday to ask how she was, but it would be the first time that he would have seen her awake. Lily and James hadn't been able to do much of anything for the girl other than to give her more space in which to toss and turn in nightmares; the medical supplies didn't match in description to her symptoms and they were afraid that if they tried to give her anything, it would only make matters worse. Lily had owled Professor Dumbledore ahead of time to let him know about the injury and James had somehow managed to get Sirius and the girl off of the train and on to the hospital wing before any of the other students were able to get out. The letter must a reached Professor Dumbledore because Madame Lycos was waiting at the castle entrance when Sirius arrived. He had been able to convince her to carry the girl, who was on the light side, to the hospital wing by being able to tell her what he had observed as possible symptoms of being sick. That's how he had learned the girl's name as well.

Harlow Essery. She was a 7th year transfer student from the United States. By discreet interrogation, Sirius also unraveled Madame Lycos' tongue enough to learn that her last bit of family had just died and, instead of staying at her old school, she had been forced to transfer to Hogwarts. _That might account for why she's so pale and thin. Becoming an orphan and then being forced to leave everything behind had to have been hard. It's not like she ran away from home like I did._ Even underfed and feverish though, Sirius thought she looked uncommonly attractive with short ebony hair._ Now if only I could see her eyes._

"Harlow? I know you're awake." She had her eyes closed, but she recognized the calling of her name by the lower voice; it was a nice voice, the kind that made her a little warm, but it didn't make her want to open her eyes. Harlow had never been a morning person, preferring to wake after the sun had been up for several hours before exiting her bedroom. People who tried to wake her up before her body was ready to be snatched from warm covers typically got hit. It only ever took one black eye to get any roommate she had to stop trying to wake her up. She would have hit the person talking in her ear too, nice voice or not, but the fact of the matter was she couldn't move. All of her body parts felt heavy, even her head. _What the heck? _

"Come on, Harry. Open your eyes. I have chocolate!" Even though she couldn't move her body, Harlow found that she could still make groaning sounds to the stranger who was whispering excitedly about chocolate to her. _What the heck?_

_Hmm, chocolate usually does the trick to wake Remus up. Maybe I should try tickling her? That always works for James._ Sirius looked around to see if Madame Lycos was nearby; strictly speaking, Sirius wasn't supposed to be here and she'd be mad at him if he was caught disturbing the rest of one of his patients. Seeing that no one was around, Sirius got up from his seat so that he'd be in a better position to tickle her awake. _This probably isn't a good idea_, he thought briefly before being convinced by the devil on his shoulder that told him he'd probably never get another chance to wake up Madame Lycos' patient by tickling them ever again. Just as his finger touched her sides, he saw a flash of blue that was Harlow's eyes and felt a bash on the left side of his head that landed him on the floor next to her bed.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?" Harlow straightened up quickly, despite the heavy feeling in her body and the dizziness in her head, to face the idiot boy who had been looming over her while she was asleep. _Alright, so I wasn't exactly asleep, but that doesn't mean he should be on top of me!_ She felt a mild sense of relish at the sound of a dark haired boy swearing and holding the side of his head where she had punched him. But the boy on the floor, didn't regret his actions, even if he was feeling a headache for them, because he'd finally gotten Sleeping Beauty awake.

"Hi, I'm Sirius. Sirius Black." Harlow gaped at him, surprised by his smile. _Who smiles after getting hit in the face?_

"Who? And‒And What? And for that matter, where am I?" The confusion and incomprehension about her surroundings started to widen her eyes as she became slowly more awake. Sirius tried to hold back a laugh, knowing that she probably wasn't in the mood to laugh right now and acknowledging that trying to tickle her awake really had been an idiotic idea. _It could have been worse, I could have tried to kiss her awake like in the story._

"Well, in reverse order. You're at Hogwarts, the hospital wing to be specific. My friends and I used the same compartment as you on the train, and one of them pointed out that you looked feverish. I mean you were asleep at the time, or we would have introduced ourselves then. Anyways, that was a couple of days ago. I brought you to the hospital wing when we got to the school. And, like I said, I'm Sirius Black." Harlow merely nodded in a slight daze (_Bleeding dizziness._) as the boy talked, still holding his head in his hand and smiling brightly at her. _Well, that explains why I feel like I can't move._

"Why were you looming over me?" Sirius' face tinged pink around his checks and he had the sense to look at least a little embarrassed.

"I was trying to wake you up."

"By looming over me?" Harlow asked looking cautiously at him.

"Well, I was about to tickle you." If Sirius' face wasn't already hurting, he'd have hit himself again at the candid answer that had Harlow backing as far away from him as the bed would allow.

"You were what?" _No one has tickled me since I was seven. What's wrong with him?_

"I was going to tickle you awake. It's not as daft as it sounds! That's how I have to get my friend James up. Well, when he isn't up before me that is." Sirius couldn't help but notice how her eyebrows cocked and raised with his every sentence. _That's cute._

"Do I look like your friend James?"

"Well, no. I mean, you both have black hair, but he isn't nearly as light as you and he isn't a girl. He's actually Head Boy this year. Don't suppose you know what that is do you?" _No, and I don't really care._

"No, but that still doesn't answer why you were trying to wake me up in the first place." _I cannot tell her that I wanted to see her eyes open. I can absolutely __**not**__ tell her that._

"Well, I was worried about you." _There, that's the truth._

"Why?" _You don't even know me…_

"Because you were sick on the train and I had to carry you to the hospital wing." _Who questions why they are being worried about?_

"Did the nurse tell you that I would be fine?" _It's not like being sick was going to kill me._

"Well, yes." Sirius said confused at the point Harlow was trying to make.

"Then I still don't understand." _Why are you here? Why would you worry?_

"I just wanted to make sure you would be up before classes started tomorrow." _Seriously, who questions why someone is worried about them?_

"But why?" _How many times am I going to have to ask him before I get a straight answer._

"Because you're new." Sirius finally huffed out frustrated by her questioning "And it would be bad if you missed your first classes at a new school." _Ah. The "you're new, let me help you syndrome". Well that won't last the week, at least._

"Oh. Thank you. I guess." _Still can't believe he tried to tickle me awake._

"You're welcome." _Now what do I say…_ "Are you hungry?"

"Um…not particularly, no." _How long before he leaves? I mean not that I don't appreciate that he helped me, but it's just weird. I wonder if all the kids at Hogwarts are like him. I don't know if I'll be able to handle a year of that._

"Okay. Just so you know, um classes start tomorrow." _You already said that. _"I think Professor Dumbledore, our headmaster, was going to sort you once you could get out of bed."

"Sort?"

"Yah. There are four houses. Gryffindor, which I'm in, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin, which you don't want to be sorted in.

"Why?"

"Slytherin has got a reputation for turning out evil-minded students. There's a lot of pressure there to join Lord Voldemort's team of Death Eaters." _I wonder how my brother is handling it. I bet he folds, _Sirius thought bitterly.

"So a quarter of the school is evil?"

"Well, no. But it just has a reputation."

"The other houses don't have reputations?"

"Well, they do. But theirs aren't related to being evil." _Why is this female so bleeding argumentative?_

"What are their reputations? How do you get sorted?" Harlow asked, still thinking that the idea of the quarter of the school being evil was ridiculous. _But what do I know, it is my first year here._

"You just place the Sorting Hat on your head. It's an enchanted hat that can see the kind of person you are and read your thoughts, it uses what it reads in your head to decide what house you will be in. Didn't they have a sorting system at your school?"

"Not one where you were sorted by personality."

"Oh. Well Gryffindors are supposed to be brave and chivalrous, which is why we are always in fights with Slytherins. Ravenclaws are typically for those who value learning, wisdom and quick thinking. It's not as bad as it sounds; not everyone in the house is an egghead though most of the students seem to specialize in certain topics. Hufflepuff gets mixed reviews by people. Slytherins will tell you the lot are duffers, but you typically get nicer people in that house. I think it's something about being honest, hard working and loyal. But I might be wrong. And then Slytherins are blindly ambitious and typically‒"

"Evil. Yah, I got that. So why are people sorted be personality?"

"Never really thought about it, to be honest. It was something the four founders decided, so it's always been like this."

"Oh."

"So…think you'll be able to get out of here today?"

"I don't know, it depends on what the nurse says. Other than being a little worn out from being sick I feel fine."

"I could go get her if you want, that way she give you one last check over." Harlow just nodded and watched him get the nurse. _Well, one thing is for sure, I'm not going to be in Gryffindor._

O0O0O0O

_Ravenclaw. The house where at least not everyone is an egghead._ Now that she wasn't under the gaze of Madame Lycos, who was hard to convince that she didn't need to stay another day in the hospital wing, or Professor Dumbledore, who seemed like he wanted to ask her how she was feeling but knew her well enough to know that she didn't want to be asked, Harlow felt comfortable enough to linger on Sirius Black's words. She had been right when she had thought earlier that she wouldn't be placed in Gryffindor, although the Sorting Hat claimed she had the ability to be brave if she wanted to. Slytherin and Hufflepuff didn't suit her at all, but Ravenclaw did. _Well, my family used to say that I was far to thinky a girl._

Harlow had tried not to think about her family, or lack of family, since she had arrived in England. She had been transferred to Hogwarts, the school her mother had attended when she was young. Her mother had married an American wizard and moved to the states to be with him. They had both died before she was five. Her mother from an experiment in their house gone awry, and her father from a magical sickness a year later. Harlow, who was the exact image of her father and without a hint of her mother in her, was disliked immensely by her father's family, the only family she had left. Her father had been the favorite, but he changed when he met his wife. Her grandfather, who has disliked her the least out of all her family members, was in charge of her until she was seven, but after he died she was bounced around from one aunt to another uncle to her father's youngest older sister and back again. None of them wanted her, and as soon as she was old enough to be entered into a boarding school, she was. Her family had then decided that they would change hands with her every couple of years; which meant every couple of years, she was put into a different school. For awhile, Harlow had tried to convince herself that they meant well, but one Christmas, they set her straight by flat out telling her that the day she turned eighteen and was in charge of her own affairs was going to be the best day of their lives. _Is it funny, even in a morbid way, that they all died before then?_

She didn't have any cousins or second cousins. Her uncle and aunts had either never married, or had married but had no children. She had been left to take care of the funeral arrangements of her last aunt and uncle, who had died from accidental poison intake, alone. It had been loud and hundreds of people had come crying to her telling her how sorry they felt with her and falsely assuring her that if she needed anything that she could count on them. She nodded like a bobble-head during the entire process and watched as all of her family's closest friends, most of whom didn't even know who she was, mourn and cry while she stood dry eyed. If people saw and talked about the lack of emotion she portrayed at the funeral and even after, they didn't say it within her earshot; but that didn't mean she didn't realize it herself. _I couldn't cry. I can't cry for them. Why can't I cry?_

After the funeral and the will reading, in which, to her surprise she had actually been left something, the attorney had packed up her belongs, filled out the necessary forms that transferred her to Hogwarts, and shoved her off to her mother's home country by the end of August. Harlow hadn't been used to the climate or knew who to go to or what to use if she got sick, which she did just two days before having to go to Kings Cross. She tried to remember what she did in the days before going to Kings Cross, but other than reading a book, nothing of which could she remember now, Harlow couldn't remember anything that had happened while she had been sick.

"Athena! I found Sleeping Beauty!" The shout rang through the almost empty corridor and brought Harlow out of her thoughts. Turning she saw a blond running towards her with a taller brunette and a shorter read head in tow. _I wonder who dubbed me Sleeping Beauty._

"Marigold, slow down. You're going to scare her." _And when did I become a rabbit or a doe?_

Marigold, the girl with bright golden hair that had shouted out a moment ago, stopped once she'd reached Harlow and pulled her into a hug. _Seriously? What is with these people and physical contact?_ The shock at being hugged by a complete stranger Harlow assumed must have shown on her face because the two other girls pulled their friend off of her, one of them apologizing while the other was lecturing.

"Sorry about Marigold, she got really excited when we heard that you had finally woken up."

"Marigold, how many times have I told you that you can't go around hugging people you don't know well or don't know you well."

"But Athena…"

"No, buts! Go apologize." The ridiculousness of what just happened and the similarity it had to how she had been woken up caused Harlow to break characteristic behavior by starting to giggle. _I never giggle_, her mind wanted to protest, and yet couldn't.

"See, Athena, she doesn't mind."

"Oh great, someone else to encourage her bad behavior."

"Let it go, Athena."

"Yes! Lily is on my side." _Lily? Why does that sound familiar?_

"I'm not on anyone's side. We are here to show Harlow around, remember?"

"Okay, okay. My name is Marigold O'Brian. I'm in Gryffindor and am the resident hugger." _Does that make Sirius the resident rooster?_

"I'm Lily Evans. I'm in Gryffindor with Marigold and I'm the Head Girl this year, so if you have any questions don't be afraid to ask." _Maybe Sirius mentioned her and that's why I recognized the name._

"And I'm Athena Damon. Unlike the sunbeams I'm in Ravenclaw with you. So we will be rooming together and probably be in a lot of the same classes." _Hopefully she doesn't try to wake me up for class tomorrow._

"Nice to meet you. I'm Harlow Essery. The transfer student."

O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0

**Second Note**: Just a quick reminder of the second note in which I ask you to PLEASE REVIEW. That lets me know that people are actually reading what I write and like it. Thank you!


	2. The Finding of Futuristic Books

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Harry Potter or anything relating to JKRowling.

**Summary**: When Harlow Essery transfers to Hogwarts, she doesn't just bring the baggage of a scared past, but also two books that will change the future. The Marauders read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone while Harlow & Lily's friends read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. How will these students react to the accounts of a boy in his first and third year?

**Note**: Please review! Tell me what you think of the characters, or the writing style or if there are any errors in my work (including discontinuity). I'm really looking for advice on how to improve my writing.

O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0

**Chapter Two: The Finding of Future Books**

James and Remus had told him to be patient, to let Sleeping Beauty come to them instead of trying to chase after her and pin her down for an interrogation. _But it's soooo hard!_ It had almost been a month since the start of school, since the day she had punched him for trying to tickle her awake, and yet he felt like he learned nothing more about her then what he had been able to flirt Madame Lycos out of. He knew she was alone in the world, and yet she didn't act like it. Not that she lied when people asked her questions about her family, but she just seemed to slide out of the question without having answered it and without the questioner realizing until she had already left the room. No one in the school knew anything about her. He wasn't even sure Lily, who she had most classes with, or Athena, who she lived with, knew why she had been transferred to Hogwarts in the first place. To top off his aggravation, he had this feeling that she was avoiding him. _Well, you did try to tickle her awake_, Sirius conscious blurted out.

"Sirius, will you please stop brooding." James had been trying to concentrate on his potions essay that was due tomorrow morning, but it was proving difficult when his best friend was glaring at him from the other side of the table. James knew that Sirius wasn't actually glaring at him, in fact, he was sure that Sirius had forgotten where he was let alone who was in front of him. Harlow Essery had been on his mind as well, but James didn't think anyone spent as much time thinking about her as Sirius was doing now.

O0O0O0O

Lily and Athena had told her to be patient, to let Harlow come to us instead of trying to chase after her and pin her down for an interrogation. _But it's soooo hard!_ It had almost a month since the start of school, and since first being introduced to Harlow Essery, and yet it seemed like no one knew anything about her. Marigold was dying to ask her question her, but every time she tried Harlow would find a legitimate excuse for why she had to leave and then Athena and Lily would sigh and ask Marigold why she couldn't just leave the girl alone.

Marigold didn't understand it. Athena lived with her and Lily had a lot of classes with her and yet neither of them knew anything deeper about her than that her middle name was Delphine and her favorite color was either hoary and slate, which Marigold had to look up to find out that they were different shades of grey. Athena had pointed out that while Marigold was an open book to basically anyone, the same could not be said of everyone else, but Marigold knew that even she was a little frustrated at the lack of information Harlow had revealed about herself. _It's like she doesn't want anyone to know her_, Marigold thought as she tried to not glare at Harlow, who was sitting in front of her working on a potions essay for tomorrow morning. _She can't be completely oblivious to what we are all thinking though. I mean it isn't exactly natural to go almost a whole month without laughing, right?_

O0O0O0O

Harlow bit back a sigh as she tried to ignore the stares she was getting in the library. _You'd think that the school didn't have more important things to do than to stare at me._ She had just made her excuses to Lily, Athena and Marigold about leaving something in the room that she had to go get. She just couldn't work under the piercing look of Marigold anymore. At first she thought it would go away, but as the days in the last could of weeks past, the look had gotten more determined and harder to ignore. Harlow wasn't an idiot after all, she knew that they were all curious about her, but it was hard for her to let information go, and she didn't understand why they were son interested in her life. She was pretty sure that Lily and Athena had talked to Marigold about interrogating her when they were studying together, but even though they hid it better, Lily and Athena both had a tendency to become distracted from their work and peer at her with a look that showed they were holding back the questions on the tip of their tongues.

It wasn't just them either. Sirius Black had introduced her to his friends James and Remus and they were just as curious as Marigold. It was a good thing that Harlow wasn't in the same house as Sirius or she'd never get a break from him. He was nice, really very nice but it was almost impossible to avoid his questions. He just dogged a person until they answered them in detail. She'd taken to trying to avoid him in order to avoid his questions, which was a shame because he was wickedly funny when he wasn't interrogating her. This was no easy feat either, he seemed to just popup everywhere she went like he had a tracking device on her.

"Harry!" _Speaking of the devil_. Harlow had no choice but to turn around and face Sirius at the sound of his nickname for her. She hadn't argued the name, although she thought about it, afraid that it would encourage him to talk directly to her. "I was just looking for you."

"Well you found me." _Now the question is how am I going to lose you without being rude?_ "What did you need?"

"Company, what else?" _Great he's going to try to interrogate me again._

"I'm actually headed to my common room. I left a book there that I need to finish the last of my Ancient Studies homework." Sirius' smile didn't fade, but Harlow could feel a dimming around him as if she had just rejected him, _Which I sort of was trying to do_. "Do you want to walk with me to the common room though?" _What? What is wrong with me? Why did I ask that?_ The dimming reversed and Harlow had the strangest feeling of being warmed before she shook it off.

"I'd like that."

"Great." _Not great. Not great at all!_

O0O0O0O

"That's great, mate."

"See, we told you that if you gave her space that she would eventually come to you."

"I thought that only worked when you were dating the girl."

"No, Wormy, this is one of the tactics that always works no matter what the relationship is."

"So, did you find out anything new about her, Padfoot?"

"Yah! I learned that…no, I already knew that. But I learned..."

"Padfoot?"

"…I learned nothing, Moony. Nothing that I didn't already know. Which was nothing. Bloody Hell!"

"Wow, she got you good this time, Padfoot."

"You're not helping, Peter."

"I'm just point out the‒"

"The obvious? Thanks for that."

"Oh come on, Sirius. If you just give her‒"

"What, Moony? Time? Space? How much? When do I get the flashing light that says it's okay to ask questions now?"

"Well, I don't know about the flashing light, but I think Remus is right. I mean look at what waiting has gotten you so far?"

"Remind me again."

"It's gotten her attention. It's gotten her to offer to spend time with you. Even if it's only a short amount of time."

O0O0O0O

"That's great, James!"

"I know, but it was the devil trying to convince Sirius that it was progress."

"He's like Marigold, then." _And you if you remember correctly_. "They both want immediate answers to all of their questions."

"Basically. I used to think that the two of them would make a good couple. But after she joined the team I'd have to say that one Sirius is enough in any relationship."

"I used to think that too, but you've got a point about one Sirius per relationship. But Athena told me that they did date for awhile."

"Really? When did that happen?"

"I don't know. Awhile ago, but she never said anything to me about it. Of course, it's kind of hard to keep up with all of her dates."

"Same with Sirius. Right so back on the topic of Hogsmead weekend? I was thinking we could do one for Halloween like they did last year. I know it might be a pain to clean up all the mess from Zonkos products‒"

"Are you planning on helping to create that mess again this year?"

"What's Hallows Eve without a little mayhem?"

"I don't think I can answer that without coming off hypocritical. I was thinking we could talk to Professor Dumbledore about authorizing a Hallows Eve party like they did two years ago. What do you think?"

"Hmm, I don't know. On one hand the costumes are always fun, but it might be a stretch on everyone's pockets right now. I'd rather push a dance off till the week before Christmas."

"That's when everyone will be wanting to hold their money for presents."

"Right, well how about in November? Nothing happens in November."

"Well there's Guy Fawkes and the Harvest Fair."

"Why don't we do that? I haven't been to a Harvest Fair Ball."

"Plus, it would give everyone more chances to go to Hogsmead. Once for Halloween, once in November, and once before Christmas. We can figure out more dates before we leave for break."

"Alright, let's draw up a proposal this week that way we have a ready copy for Professor Dumbledore in plenty of time."

"Right…Hey, Lily?"

"Yah, James?"

"Has Harlow ever invited you or Athena or Marigold to do anything?"

"You mean like walking her to the common room? No."

"Have you noticed how she evades everyone's question?"

"It's hard not to once it's happened to you repeatedly. Why?"

"You don't think something happened to her to make her that way, do you? I mean, something bad?"

"I don't know, James. And until she tells me, I don't have any way of finding out."

O0O0O0O

_I thought it was a dream. I thought it was a nightmare._ Harlow stared down at the book that had fallen out of her bag. She'd put a spell on the bag so that an infinite amount of belongings would fit in the bag without it getting any bigger, but she hadn't gotten around to emptying the bag until now. That's how she found the book. _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_. Her last headmistress had gotten this and another book for her to read on the journey "home". When she had gotten the letter from Hogwarts, she thought it was a joke. It had to be, except it talked about things that couldn't be. That couldn't be known. It talked about the war. It talked about teachers who were at the school. It talked about James and Lily dying. The conversations she had heard on the train came back a little. She had thought it was a dream that the book was projecting. When she had woken up, she had decided that she had dreamed about the books too. That it was just a nightmare. _What do I do?_

O0O0O0O

_Where did this come from?_ Remus was sitting on his bed looking at the cover of a book he had never seen before. It had been inside his suitcase, but when he'd emptied the luggage out the first night, he hadn't paid attention to it. _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone_. Remus thought that it was a prank by James, but…_No, James wouldn't make a prank like this. It would take too much time and not a big enough bash for him to consider it a successful prank._ Remus sighed and tossed it back into his trunk. He'd ask James about it later, right now he needed to get ready for the full moon.

O0O0O0O

Monday had long past, along with Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. In those four days her classmates had seen a definitely change in Harlow. Several definite changes actually, as she kept swerving from one mood to another by day. Tuesday she looked like she was in a lost daze, late to every class, jolting at sudden noises, abnormally quiet (even by her standards) and completely unfocused. When classes had come to an end, she went straight to her room and went to bed flat out ignoring the questions and concerned looks her classmates were giving her. Wednesday she acted like Tuesday had never happened and, other than evading the question of what had happened to her yesterday, she answered questions put to her in straight forward fashion. She didn't go to sleep until late because she asked Athena to eat smores with her in the common room. The Thursday came, and she was more evasive than anyone had ever seen her. The most anyone was able to get out of her was a "hello" and "goodbye" and even the Marauders couldn't find her in the castle. (Partially because Peter had misplaced the map.) Friday was similar to Thursday, except she bounced from one class to another either with a smile on her face or biting her bottom lip nervously.

Today was Saturday, and to Athena's shock when she woke up, Harlow wasn't there. One of their other roommates had tried to wake her up in the first week of classes, and, after apologizing profusely for not warning them ahead of time, explained that she always woke up with her left fist swinging and that she absolutely hated mornings. Athena, on the other hand, was a morning person to the core; when the sun can up so did she. Not seeing Harlow in her bed at dawn ignited a brief panic in Athena that she might not have had had Harlow been less than unpredictable during the week. She throws on clothes and rushes out to the common room to find it empty. "Damn it, Harlow."

O0O0O0O

The piece of paper beside Lily's bed was an invention made by Athena and herself after Lily had seen a howler for the first time. Since electronic equipment wouldn't work inside the school, Lily and Athena had found a way to use the piece of paper to communicate and took the howler as a basis. It was by this invention that Lily was woken up. "LILY! WAKE UP!"

Lily groaned angrily from the floor where she had fallen, which must have been heard on the otherside because Athena responded. "Sorry, but I needed you to wake up right away and get Marigold and come help me."

"Why? What happened? What's wrong?"

"It's Harlow. I can't find her."

"But it's barely light out. Isn't she in bed?"

"If she was in bed, would I be waking you up now? Look I wouldn't normally worry, but she's been weird all week."

"Alright, I'll go ask the Marauders if they know where she is.

"Thanks, I'm going to go down to the kitchens and the Great Hall to see if she's there."

"And I'll send Marigold down after I've talked to the Marauders."

O0O0O0O

"James?"

"Mmm."

"James, please wake up."

"Mmmmm."

"James, it's Lily. I need you to wake up."

"Lily-flower. Dream. Mmm."

"…Right I really hate to do this but. WAKE UP!"

"Ahh!"

"Wha-What? What? Where?"

"I'm sorry."

"Lily?"

"What the hell, flower?"

"What's going on?"

"Who screamed?"

"I need the map, James."

"Wha-What?"

"You woke us up because‒"

"You need the map?"

"It's dawn, flower…"

"I realize it's dawn, James, otherwise I would take issue with you calling me 'flower' but I need the map."

"How do you even‒"

"You know what, after we find Harlow, I will answer your questions."

O0O0O0O

"Marigold, go down to the Great Hall to tell Athena that the Marauders don't know where she is."

"Where are you going?"

"The library and the hospital wing."

"But if the Marauders don't know‒"

"I know, but I've got to check anyways."

O0O0O0O

"Sirius and I will cover Hogsmead."

"Do you think she's already found the passages?"

"Well, she isn't on the map, where else could she be?"

O0O0O0O

"I'm going to kill her when I find her. I'm going to shred her in half with a blunt saw, and then I'm going to‒"

"Marigold, not that I don't understand the sentiment but the planning the process is taking it a step too far."

"You guys! I just ran into Remus, he said he found her. She's in the transfiguration classroom."

"Are you kidding me? We've been looking for her all day and she's been in a classroom?"

O0O0O0O

_Alright, well, that's the last of the enchantments. I hope I covered everything. Let's see, I have something to forget temporary and permanently, plus the watch stop, I put the book in the room of requirements, don't know what I would have done without it. I think that is it. There's no going back now. I've got to tell them about the books. Or at least Lily about the books. Wish I could figure out where the other book was though. I mean, I didn't dream that. I wonder if it got mixed up in someone else's__‒__but how could that have happened?_ Harlow sighed wearily staring down at her checklist for tomorrow, she'd been working on it since she'd found the books, which would have been a lot easier had she been able to visit the librarian at her old school earlier in the week. She knew that she should be grateful that Professor Dumbledore let her use his fireplace at all, and she would be had she not be so nervous about what she was planning to do with the books. She hoped that Lily would react to them well. _She probably will, I mean I've never actually seen her get upset and she's usually in a good or mild temper. _

"HARLOW DELPHINE ESSERY!"

Harlow couldn't help but jump up from her seat at the sound of her full name being screamed so loud it bounced off of the walls. The question of whether she had jumped at hearing her full name said for the first time or the volume of it being said passed briefly in her mind. It didn't matter because she instantly froze when she saw a red-faced red head who seemed to be on the brink of accidental magic. "Li-Lily?" Harlow asked in a small voice wondering what the hell she could have done to provoke the storming temper.

"How. Dare. You." Lily entered the room and each step forward pushed Harlow one step back. "Have you any idea what you have done?" It was on the tip of Harlow's tongue to say no, but she was too scared to say something that would cause an explosion. "Have you any idea the hell you put us through?"

"Wh-What?"

"We've been looking for you all day. No one knew where you were. Bed empty, no note. Where the hell have you been? We were scared something had happened to you."

"Sorry?" By this point Lily was only a foot away and Harlow's back was to the wall.

"Sorry?…That's it? That's all you have to say."

"What do you want me to say?" _I'll tell you anything you want hear so long as you don't hex me._

"Oh, I don't know, why don't you tell us where exactly you've been all day and why exactly you thought it necessary to worry us to death." The accusation that she had a responsibility to tell them her every move stung Harlow enough to pull her out of her surprised and somewhat fearful state. _It bloody well isn't my fault if they are going to worry about me. I didn't ask them to!_

"As to where I was exactly. I was in the library, in North Carolina, at my old school, talking to the librarian. For a specific reason." _That has everything to do with you_. "As to why, exactly, I thought it necessary to worry you so, well I have no control over you're worry mechanisms. How was I supposed to know you would get so upset?"

"How could you possibly think we wouldn't worry about you? We are your friends, and the concept of caring about the endangerment of one friend calling for the panic and worry by the others cannot be completely foreign to you." Harlow just blinked at Lily's response, because it was a completely foreign concept to her. "Besides you've been like a rollercoaster all week. One minute up the next down then all of a sudden you are gone before the sun has even risen, Miss I-Hate-Mornings. What were we suppose to think?"

"I have a reason for that."

"One that you refuse to share with your friends."

"Will you stop that!"

"Stop what?"

"Throwing around the word friend like it's a contract that I signed onto and repeatedly act against. Look I'm sorry that I worried you, but I don't understand why you care so much about me." _For that matter, I don't even understand why I care so much about you either._

"What the hell do you mean you don't understand? It's because we are friends. It's absolutely impossible for you not understand that."

"It's actually not absolutely impossible that I don't understand, otherwise I wouldn't have said that I don't understand in the first place."

"Have you never had a friend before?"

"Honestly? No. No I have not. Which is why I do not understand what you are so upset about. I'm fine and you found me and I apologized for scaring you even if I didn't do it on purpose and personally don't think I deserve being yelled at for it."

"You've never had a friend?"

"I believe I just said that, and I don't typically lie."

"I didn't say you lied. You needn't resort to lying, you're so proficient in evasion and redirecting conversations."

"And you're point is?"

"My point is that No One Knows Anything About You."

"And?"

"And that's bad."

"How is that bad?"

"People want to know you."

"Why?"

"Because they do."

"Why?"

"Because they want to be your friend!"

"Why?"

"Why the hell are you arguing with me why people want to be friends with you?"

"I'm trying to figure out why you want to be friends with someone you just professed to not know when the likelihood of us seeing each other again, taking my awful luck in remaining in one place for more than a year, is extremely small."

"What?"

"Hogwarts isn't the first school I've transferred to, Lily. This is the seventh school I've attended. True, this time it's not because I've been bumped from one of my father's siblings to another, as all of them are dead now. Yet the concept of moving me across time zones did not end when that last of my relatives, all of whom have hated me since, well they never actually told me when they started to hate me, anyways the practice of moving me across time zones did not decease with them. That is why I'm at Hogwarts. They are why I don't have friends. What's the point if in less than a year, because the school year isn't twelve months long, now is it, I'm just going to get moved again. And I've never seen or heard from any of the people I've gone to school with at any of the other schools I attended. Not even the one that I was actually lucky enough to stay two years at."

"Wh‒What?"

"I just told you my part of my sad life story, just like you wanted. Happy now?"

"You‒What?"

"Are you done yelling at me?"

"I‒Yes? Wait. You're an‒"

"Orphan. The word is orphan, but don't worry I haven't really been anything other than an orphan since I was four. Other than my grandfather, who I lived with until I was seven, I've only seen my other relatives five times. Not in a year, but in seventeen. Even when I was transferred into another's hand I never actually got to see them. They don't like half-breeds."

"I‒" Lily's voice was caught in her throat, and Harlow shook her head angry at herself and at the sympathy that was clouding over the anger that had been in Lily's eyes. _I don't want you're sympathy._

"I'm going to bed." Harlow noticed the others (Sirius, Remus, James, Athena, and Marigold) when she walked around Lily in order to get out of the door, but she didn't look at them and she tried to keep the stress out of her arms. _I shouldn't have said anything. I should have kept my head. Damn book made me lose it. How am I going to tell Lily about the book now?_

O0O0O0O

"She‒"

"Seven schools?"

"Well, that explains why she adapted to the teaching so easily. She's had to adapt before."

"I can't believe she all alone."

"I can't believe she's never had a friend."

"So what do we do?"

"Wait for her to come to us again?"

"Maybe we should apologize."

"No, if you apologize it's only going to piss her off."

"Sirius is right."

"But we can't go back to the way things were before."

"Maybe we should just play tomorrow by ear. Let her take the lead?"

"Yah, I guess."

"You know, there's something I don't understand still."

"What that, Remus?"

"Why did she have to go to the library at her last school?"

"I don't know, but it must have been a pretty important reason. Professor Dumbledore wouldn't let her go without one."

"Think she'll tell us?"

"I don't know, that explosion was kind of uncharacteristic or her."

"I hope everything is okay."

O0O0O0O

The next morning, even Athena didn't want to get out of bed. She had a mountain of work to do since she had wasted all of Saturday looking for Harlow, but she had had a hard time sleeping in the bed next to Harlow that night. _What must it be like to never have had a friend? Lonely? Scary? But Harlow seems so relaxed. Most of the time._

"Hey, Athena." Harlow pulled back the curtains on her bed hesitantly. "You should get up now. There's something I think you, Marigold and Lily are going to want to see."

"What is it?"

O0O0O0O

"A book, Harlow. That is the reason why you woke us up. Because you wanted to read a book." Marigold growled at her friend, still mad at her for yesterday's scare and exhausted from homework Lily had convinced her to do after the fight. _At least I don't have as much to do today as I thought I would. And it's almost worth getting up in order to see the room or requirement_. Harlow had made a Gryffindor wake up Lily and her, and then asked them to follow her to a door that Marigold had never seen before. When they'd entered Harlow told them that she wanted to read a book with them.

"It's not just any book, Marigold. This is the reason I've been weird or rollercoaster-like all week, and the reason why I was gone all day yesterday. I needed to get approval from a few people before I could show it to anyone else. It's a book about events that haven't happened yet." _Well that got their attention, didn't it._

"A book from the future. Are we in it?"

"One of us is, in a sort of roundabout way. I haven't actually read this one. I read a different one, but I can't find it. The librarian said that the book might disappear once it had been read though, so she said I shouldn't worry about it. Anyways, I thought that this time, I should have someone else read it with me; just so I know I'm not going insane."

"And you chose us?"

"Well, Lily's kind of in here. Or she was in the other one. And I figured you'd want to have your friends with you when we read it. But no pressure if you don't want to read it. You don't have to. I got permission to make forgetful potions so that if we decide at the end of this that we would be better off not knowing, then we could make it go away."

"Is it bad?"

"…Sort of. But maybe we could change things."

"Then, I'm in." Marigold and Athena nodded with Lily in agreement to the decision.

"Alright, well, I'll read the first chapter. The book is called _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_."

"Wait, so this has to do with James, too?"

"Yes, but I thought it would be best to introduce the book to a few people at a time."

"Good. If it's bad, I don't know if I want James to know. At least not yet."

O0O0O0O

"Hey Remus, can I borrow a book? I'm going to go hang out in the kitchens and read I think."

"Don't you have homework?" James smiled winningly in answer to Sirius' question as he walked to Remus's trunk of books knowing that Remus wouldn't mind his taking of a book. "How the hell James did you finish your homework before the rest of us have started?"

"Well, one of my friends was sickly this week and the other was too busy brooding over a girl to distract me, Pads."

"Oh, fluff it. I'm going to the kitchens with you. I can't concentrate in this room any longer."

"I'll come with you guys, I'm starving. And I'm out of chocolate. What book are you grabbing?"

"Let's see. Hmm. I haven't seen this one before. _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone_. What's that one about, Moony?"

"It's not yours then?"

"What? No. That's why I asked you about it. Have you not read it?"

"I don't even know where the book came from. I just found it when I was looking through my trunk last week."

"Weird. Mind it I read it first then."

"Yah, no problem."

"I say we read it together. Maybe out homework will go away then."

"Ha! You wish, Padfoot. Let's read it in the kitchen though."

"Alright. Reading in alphabetical order? So, me first!"

"Then Remus and then Peter and then me."

"Actually, no. Peter isn't here."

"Huh. Wonder where he is."

"Yah, I haven't seen him as much as usual this year."

"Oh, well. He's not a big fan of reading anyways."

O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0

**Second Note**: Just a quick reminder of the second note in which I ask you to PLEASE REVIEW. That lets me know that people are actually reading what I write and like it. Thank you!

**Third Note**: This is a poll! Who do you want to read first? Lily & the girls taking on the first three chapters of the Prisoner of Azkaban? OR the Marauders taking on the first two chapters of the Sorcerer's Stone? I won't post again until I get an opinion. Thank you.


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